OPTICAL CONNECTOR PLUG
An optical connector plug to be inserted to an adapter, is arranged such that a pair of engaging parts for expanding an elastic locking piece provided on a side of the adapter by a taper part and locking it with a step part is provided on a tip part of a plug frame which is a body of the plug; a locking releasing piece movable along an insertion-extraction direction is provided between the pair of engaging parts; a taper part for releasing a locking action of the elastic locking piece when extracting the plug is provided at a rear end of the locking releasing piece; and the taper part of the engaging parts has such a shape that the connecting stress is not lowered before being locked when inserting the plug.
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The present invention relates to an optical connector plug to be inserted into and extracted from a connector adapter, particularly relates to an optical connector plug which is easily inserted into and extracted from the connector adapter, and which is compatible with a SC type connector in the connector for optical fiber cord connection.
BACKGROUND ARTIn recent years, along with the development of FTTH, the opportunity for ordinary people other than a special construction dealer to touch an optical connector is increasing. In connector operations, when inserting and extracting the conventional SC type connector plug into and from a connector adapter, the connector plug remains in the connector adapter in the half-way in insertion or extraction, and it is known that a so-called half-way insertion occurs. In order to avoid this state, conventionally a marking was put on a part of the connector plug, and the connector plug was inserted or extracted so that the marking is invisible.
CITATION LIST Patent LiteraturePTL 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. s62-78507 (1987)
PTL 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. 4215577
PTL 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-176297
SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical ProblemThe problem in the insertion and extraction of the conventional SC type connector plug into and from the connector adapter is described in further details with reference to the patent literature 1.
In
When such operation is performed, changes in stress 200 measuring the force of inserting the plug 110 into the adapter 120 are shown in
As for a stress when inserting the conventional SC type connector plug 110 into the adapter 120, first, the adapter elastic locking piece 121 contacts a tip part of a plug housing, and by moving along the slope 111, the elastic locking piece 121 is extended. Thus, the stress increases abruptly (symbol b). Thereafter, while the elastic locking piece 121 moves along the flat part 112 of the plug housing, and the slope 113, changes in stress are seen, and the stress becomes almost zero when the elastic locking piece 121 falls in front of the suspending part 114 of the plug frame (symbol c). When being further inserted, the elastic locking piece 121 moves the suspending part 114 of the plug 110 on the other side (symbol d). Further, the stress increases as a ferrule of the plug starts contacting a partner ferrule on the other side, and the stress becomes almost zero when the elastic locking piece 121 falls in the step part 115 of the plug, and is stopped, whereby the plug is in the completely connected state (symbol e). By further inserting, a repulsive force from the ferrule on the other side is added, and the stress increases again.
As can be seen in
In order to avoid the foregoing state of the half-way insertion, the several measures have been taken. For example, the procedures to insert until it stops moving, or until hearing the clicking sound are described in the procedure manual. Moreover, a white line is printed on a connector housing in order to determine that the connector plug is completely connected.
The above measures may be effective. However, under bad installation conditions of the adapter 120, it may be hard to hear the sound when connected, or the white line is hard to recognize if the connector housing cannot be seen directly. Therefore, in fact it is difficult to completely prevent the half-way insertion. Furthermore, as the FTTH becomes popular, the cases where unskilled workers or ordinary people deal with the optical connector are increasing, and the measure for preventing this state of half-way insertion is more necessitated.
Also when extracting the plug from the adapter, the plug is stopped on the way in the state where the stress becomes zero (symbol c). This state is also the state of half-way insertion when extracting, which is a problem. If this state of the half-way insertion occurs, although the plug 110 is apparently inserted into the adapter 120, light is not conducted. Therefore, this may cause a delay in defining a factor of a failure.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an optical connector plug which can prevent an occurrence of such phenomena that a connecting stress is reduced to zero or lowered on the way in a process of inserting or extracting, or preventing an occurrence of a half-way insertion on the way of inserting or extracting process, when a general person other than a professional construction worker inserts or extracts the optical connector.
Solution to ProblemIn order to solve the above problem, the optical connector plug of the present invention is the optical connector plug to be inserted into an adapter, wherein a pair of engaging parts for expanding an elastic locking piece provided on a side of the adapter by a taper part and locking it with a step part is provided on a tip part of a plug frame which is a body of the plug; a locking releasing piece movable along an insertion-extraction direction is provided between the pair of engaging parts; a taper part for releasing a locking action of the elastic locking piece when extracting the plug is provided at a rear end of the locking releasing piece; and the taper part of the engaging parts has such a shape that the connecting stress is not lowered before being locked when inserting the plug.
The optical connector plug includes a flat face between the taper part and the step part of the engaging part.
The taper part of the engaging part has a multistage tapered shape.
The optical connector housing is provided with a light-shielding member.
Advantageous Effects of InventionAccording to the optical connector plug of the present invention, when connecting to the adapter, an adapter elastic locking piece is directly extended by the plug frame, to move the plug frame, and the adapter locking piece falls in a suspending part, thereby completing the connecting. With this mechanism, both the frame front part and frame center part of the plug form slopes, more preferably form slopes with constant inclination, whereby the stress increases gradually until the adapter locking piece falls in the suspending part of the plug frame, and it is possible to hold a change amount in stress to the same as possible.
As a result, the stress does not decrease in the middle when connecting the plug. Thus, the worker who connects the connector plug does not misunderstand that the plug is inserted in the suspending part, thereby preventing the half-way insertion.
Further, as the 7th clause of JIS C5973, structure, form, and size is defined in
An optical connector plug of the present invention is explained in detail with reference to the drawings.
First, an embodiment in an examination process of the present invention is described based on the connector plug shown in the patent literature 2. The patent literature 2 discloses a connector plug of SC type conformity. The adapter disclosed in the patent literature 2 is the same as that of the SC type connector adapter shown in
The comparison with the conventional technology is described in detail. That is, in the conventional SC type connector 110 shown in
On the other hand, according to the connector shown in
However, such phenomenon that the connecting stress is reduced from the start in the half way is seen also in the mechanism in which this plug frame extends the elastic locking piece 321 of the adapter directly, although the stress in the half-way does not become zero. In this case, a worker may feel like there becomes no stress when working.
Moreover, when extracting the connector plug 310 from the connector adapter 320, since stress is not changed halfway, it becomes in a stable state, and the situation in which the connector plug 310 has not come off from the connector adapter 320 occurs, and there is a problem that a worker may have an erroneous recognition.
The optical connector plug according to the present invention which solves the above problem is explained with reference to the drawings.
As shown in
By pushing in, the locking piece 521 can extend gradually by an approximately 8° loose continuous central slope 512, and a rear flat part is moved (
When releasing the connected plug 510 from the adapter 520, the plug 510 is retreated, while retreating the locking releasing piece 514 and releasing the locking piece 521 from the step part 513 (
The connector shown in
From these results, the optical connector plug according to the present invention has a smaller stress in early stages of insertion and the connecting stress in the middle of insertion hardly reduces but increases gradually compared with the stress of connector shown in
As shown in variations 700 and 710 for the slope shapes of the plug frame of
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to
The second embodiment is an embodiment provided with a light-shielding member disclosed in the patent literature 3.
In
Moreover, according to the light-shielding member of the present embodiment, the shutter housing 804 surrounds the outside of the tubular plug frame 803 which stores therein and supports the ferrule 802 holding the tip part of the optical fiber 801, so as to make a freely slidable contact with the tubular plug frame 803, and is inserted inside the opening part for connecting of the receptacle connector. Therefore, the guide nature when mounting can be exhibited, and even if the light-shielding member is added on the side of the plug, there is no need of improvement in particular on the receptacle connector side of the other side of connecting, and it can be connected in the same manner as the conventional manner. Thus, the light-shielding member is highly versatile. Furthermore, the light-shielding member does not go outside the outside dimension of the plug housing of an optical plug connector, and therefore does not become an obstacle in a high density assembly.
The connecting mechanism of the optical connector plug described in the first embodiment of the present invention shown in
According to the optical connector plug of the present invention, when connecting to the adapter, the adapter elastic locking piece is directly extended by the plug frame, to move the plug frame, and the adapter locking piece falls in the suspending part, thereby completing the connecting. With this mechanism, both the frame front part and frame center part of the plug form slopes, more preferably form slopes with constant inclination, whereby the stress increases gradually until the adapter locking piece falls in the suspending part of the plug frame, and it is possible to suppress a decrease in stress to the minimum.
As a result, the stress does not decrease in the middle when connecting the plug. Thus, the worker who connects the connector plug does not misunderstand that the plug is inserted in the suspending part, thereby preventing the half-way insertion.
Further, as the 7th clause of JIS C5973, structure, form, and size is defined in
Although the length of the flat part parallel to the movement direction of the plug between the slope part in the frame center portion and the step part of the frame rear portion is defined such that the extended locking piece can be surely mounted to the flat portion in the generally used SC type connector. According to the optical connector plug of the present invention, the length can be shortened to the minimum. As a result, the slope angle can be made to a low angle, and changes in stress can be prevented from being generated.
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST110 SC type connector plug by conventional technology
111 slope at tip of plug housing
112 flat part at tip part of plug housing
113 slope at rear part of plug housing
114 suspending part of plug frame
115, 313, 513 step part
120, 320, 520 adapter
121, 321, 521 elastic locking piece
310 connector plug of patent literature 1
311 front part of plug frame
312 flat part of plug frame
314, 514 pulling plate
510 connector plug of the present invention
511 tip taper part
512 central slope
515 rear flat part
705 elastic locking piece interval
801 optical fiber
802 ferrule
803 plug frame
804 shutter housing
805 shutter
806 spring
Claims
1. An optical connector plug to be inserted into an adapter, wherein
- a pair of engaging parts for expanding an elastic locking piece provided on a side of said adapter by a taper part and locking it with a step part is provided on a tip part of a plug frame which is a body of said plug;
- a locking releasing piece movable along an insertion-extraction direction is provided between said pair of engaging parts;
- a taper part for releasing a locking action of said elastic locking piece when extracting the plug is provided at a rear end of said locking releasing piece; and
- the taper part of said engaging parts has such a shape that the connecting stress is not lowered before being locked when inserting the plug.
2. The optical connector plug according to claim 1, having a flat face between the taper part and the step part of said engaging part.
3. The optical connector plug according to claim 1, wherein the taper part of said engaging part has a multistage tapered shape.
4. The optical connector plug according to claim 1, comprising a shutter housing provided outside said plug frame, wherein said shutter housing is provided with a light-shielding member.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 17, 2010
Publication Date: Aug 30, 2012
Patent Grant number: 8764313
Applicants: NTT ELECTRONICS CORPORATION (Kanagawa), HONDA TSUSHIN KOGYO CO. LTD. (Tokyo), NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION (Tokyo)
Inventors: Koichi Arishima (Yokohama-shi), Yoshi Kurosawa (Yokohama-shi), Fumiaki Hanawa (Yokohama-shi), Ryo Nagase (Atsugi-shi), Toshiaki Eguchi (Tokyo), Naohide Goto (Tokyo)
Application Number: 13/509,934
International Classification: G02B 6/36 (20060101);